An Atlas of Speleothem Microfabrics

Dr. Bruce Railsback of the University of Georgia's Department of Geology provides this online Atlas of Speleothem Microfabrics. Here he presents petrographic or electron microscope images of most known microfabrics found in stalagmites, stalactites, flowstones, and other chemically precipitated cave deposits. Notes Railsback, "Variation in the mineralogy, shape, size, clarity, orientation, and layering of crystals in speleothems provides a vast array of microfabrics in speleothems." The full color .jpeg images, some in cross-polarized light, are labeled and have descriptive, hyperlinked captions. The main sections of the Atlas are Coarse Spelean Calcite, Aragonite, Spelean Non-carbonate Minerals, Microcrystalline Calcite, Detrital Minerals, Biogenic Particles, Layers, Diagenetic Fabrics I, and Diagenetic Fabrics II: Diagenetic Columnar Calcite. Appendices, a bibliography, and a glossary round out the site.